Although legendary singer KJ Yesudas was born in a Roman Catholic Latin family, he has always been an ardent follower of Lord Krishna and Ayyappa, and has often been spotted at various temples in Kerala.

The latest news claiming that Yesudas has converted to Hinduism has been doing the rounds on social media recently, and now in a tweet, Member of Parliament Dr Subramanian Swamy has also welcomed the versatile singer to Hinduism, based on the unconfirmed piece of information he gathered from the micro-blogging site Twitter.

"Let us all Virat Hindus welcome the twitter news, if true, that famous singer Yesudas has returned to the religion of his Hindu ancestors [sic]" Swamy tweeted on Wednesday. The tweet has now gone viral with more than 1,600 retweets and has been liked by over 2,000 twitterati within eight hours of posting it on Twitter.

However, the singer's wife, Prabha, has denied the rumour. "I do not know how this news has come and it's not true," the wife told a TV channel while responding to the news.

Since years, there has been a controversy regarding giving Yesudas the permission to enter the popular Guruvayur Temple in Thrissur, which is dedicated to Lord Krishna. However, he was never restricted from entering the popular Sabarimala temple in Pathanamthitta and Mookambika temple in Karnataka, where he is a regular visitor. The popular "Harivarasanam" song, sung by Yesudas, is being recited every night before closing the Sabarimala temple door. Apart from singing more than 50,000 songs, the renowned playback singer has also rendered thousands of devotional Hindu songs and often performed concerts in various temples throughout the country.

Having started his career as a movie singer in 1961, the 76-year-old has rendered his voice in almost all the Indian languages. The seven-time National Film Award winner has bagged a total of 43 State Film Awards from the governments of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal.